Saturday Night Live (Season 6)

The sixth season of ''Saturday Night Live'', an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between November 15, 1980, and April 11, 1981. Jean Doumanian, who had been an associate producer for the first five seasons of ''SNL'', was given executive producer responsibilities after Lorne Michaels left the show, along with all the cast and almost all the writing staff. (Michaels would return five years later.) Doumanian's firstand onlyseason in charge was plagued by difficulties, from a reduced budget to new cast members who were compared unfavorably to the Not Ready for Prime Time Players. Critical reception was strongly negative and ratings sank.

After cast member Charles Rocket swore on air in the February 21, 1981 episode, NBC president of entertainment Brandon Tartikoff fired Doumanian and hired Dick Ebersol to improve the show. The show went on a brief hiatus as Ebersol retooled the cast, firing most of Doumanian's hires with the exception of Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Denny Dillon, and Gail Matthius. He also added alumni from The Second City. Ebersol's first produced episode aired on April 11, 1981, but the 1981 Writers Guild of America strike began that night, forcing the season to an early end. Over the next several months, Ebersol would retool the cast and crew further, with Murphy and Piscopo being the only cast members from the Doumanian year to survive the overhaul.

This season was alternatively known as ''Saturday Night Live '80''.

Background

Executive producer Lorne Michaels cited burnout as the reason behind his desire to take a year off, and had been led to believe by NBC executives that the show would go on hiatus with him, and be ready to start fresh upon his return.

Jean Doumanian hired Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Ann Risley and Charles Rocket as repertory players, and Yvonne Hudson, Matthew Laurance and Patrick Weathers as featured players. In doing so, she passed on then-unknown performers as Jim Carrey, Mercedes Ruehl, Sandra Bernhard, John Goodman and Paul Reubens. Andy Kaufman offered to contribute a weekly segment but was turned down. Jean Doumanian sought a non-white cast member to fill Garrett Morris' previous role. As ''SNL'' historians Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad phrase it,

Jean still needed an ethnic, and a special series of auditions was set up to find one. For two days in mid-September some thirty black actors and comedians filed through the writers' wing on the 17th floor f Rockefeller Centerto read for Jean and her people. At the end, Jean told her group she was leaning toward hiring a stand-up by the name of Charlie Barnett. But talent coordinator Neil Levy had another black performer he wanted her to see, a kid from Roosevelt, Long Island, named Eddie Murphy.

Some accounts state that Jean Doumanian preferred Robert Townsend. Nevertheless, Eddie Murphy was added (as a featured player) starting with the fourth episode, after much convincing from her colleagues and staff.

Dick Ebersol's first produced episode was on April 11, 1981. After Ebersol's first episode, the 1981 Writers Guild of America strike started, forcing the show into a hiatus during which it was extensively retooled. Before the next season, Ebersol also fired Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius, leaving Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo the only remaining cast members from Jean Doumanian's tenure.

First episode

The first episode, renamed "Saturday Night Live '80" in the opening credits, aired Nov. 15, 1980, and featured an all-new cast – Charles Rocket, Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Joe Piscopo, and Ann Risley rounded out the new cast. Yvonne Hudson was hired as a featured player and became ''SNLs first black female cast member. Elliott Gould was booked to host the first episode.

Contributing to the sense that season six was doomed, in the first sketch the cast shared a bed with Gould and introduced themselves – Charles Rocket proclaimed himself to be a cross between Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, and Gilbert Gottfried referred to himself as a cross between John Belushi "and that guy from last year who did Rod Serling, and no one can remember his name" (referring to Harry Shearer).

At the end of the show, Gould stood on stage and quickly introduced himself to the cast one more time by first name and declared "We're gonna be around forever, so we might as well..."

Eddie Murphy

In September 1980, talent coordinator Neil Levy received a telephone call from 19-year-old Eddie Murphy, who had begged the producer to "give him a shot" on the show, but was initially rejected since "the black cast member had already been chosen."

"Who Shot C.R.?", Ebersol starts

On February 21, 1981 the show featured a parody of the " Who Shot J.R.?" craze from the soap opera ''Dallas''. In a cliffhanger titled "Who Shot C.R.?", cast member Charles Rocket was "shot" in the last sketch of the episode, after a running gag in which other members of the cast shared their grievances about Rocket with one another. Onstage for the goodnights, ''Dallas'' star and that week's host Charlene Tilton asked Rocket (still in character and sitting in a wheelchair) his thoughts on being shot. "Oh man, it's the first time I've been shot in my life", he replied. "I'd like to know who the fuck did it."
The cast, along with some of the audience, reacted with laughter and applause, but inside the control room, there was outrage. Director Dave Wilson, fearing that the show was finished for good, simply threw his script papers in the air and said "Well, that's the end of live television" and walked out of the room.

Bill Murray hosts

Bill Murray hosted the episode on March 7, 2 weeks after the Rocket incident. Morale had sunk in the writer's room to the point that some writers implored Bill's brother, writer Brian Doyle-Murray, to not let Bill come on the show because they did not want the ratings to go up and keep the show going longer. Murray, a friend of Doumanian, agreed to host as a favor and doing so convinced NBC's head of programming Brandon Tartikoff to keep the show on for another week.

The cold open for the episode revolved around Murray telling the cast that in spite of previous setbacks, "it just doesn't matter." This was a reference to Murray's 1979 film ''Meatballs''. Additionally, Murray jokingly told Rocket to "watch his mouth and clean it up".

Writer Pamela Norris said of Murray's appearance "It was like The Truth Teller had arrived." Murray had livened the mood of the cast and crew throughout the week. However, by the end of the episode, Murray had apologized to his old cast members by name for appearing on the episode and when Charles Rocket tried to hug Murray, he rebuffed him.

Years later Murray was interviewed for the book ''Live from New York: The Complete Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests'', where he said that he believed Doumanian had not been given a fair shot, and said the cast was unprepared for the demands of the show, the sudden attention, and the task of replacing the original cast.

Hiatus

After Bill Murray's episode, the next episode was scheduled for March 14, 1981 and would have been hosted by Robert Guillaume and Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Subsequent reruns of the episode partially edit the good nights segment to remove the announcement for next week's episode. The cast and writers were also unaware that Brandon Tartikoff, the head of programming for NBC, invited Dick Ebersol, the original developer of ''SNL'', to watch the show in secrecy in the control booth and was totally in despair over how the quality of the show sank.

Doumanian was officially replaced by Ebersol after the Murray episode. In his first two weeks, Ebersol fired Gottfried, Risley, and Rocket, replacing them with Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky, and Tony Rosato. At the end of the season, he would eliminate the rest of the 1980 cast except for Murphy and Piscopo. Ebersol originally wanted to bring in John Candy and Catherine O'Hara from ''SCTV''; Candy turned down the offer. O'Hara initially accepted the job, but immediately quit after a production meeting where Michael O'Donoghue, an original writer for SNL, berated the cast and writers for the show's poor performances and sketches.

Writers' strike

Ebersol's first show aired April 11, with appearances by Chevy Chase on '' Weekend Update'', and Al Franken asking viewers to "put ''SNL'' to sleep". Ebersol, wanting to establish a connection to the original cast, allowed Franken's tongue-in-cheek routine on the air.

Ebersol had promised Al Franken and Tom Davis that in addition to appearing on the April 11 show, they could host the next week. During the following week, with a writer's strike looming, Franken and Davis wrote material and mailed it to themselves so that their postmark could be used to prove they did not violate the strike. After seeing copies of the material, Ebersol (never a fan of Franken and Davis) caved to the writer's strike and called off the rest of the season, promising the duo they could host the season premiere that fall. As the summer ended, Ebersol, confident in his new cast, decided he no longer needed a link to the original cast. Franken claims Ebersol never returned his calls, and Franken and Davis never hosted ''SNL''. Franken would not return to ''SNL'' until four years later, as a featured cast member.

Other episodes cancelled due to the strike were scheduled to air on April 25, 1981 (with host Dan Aykroyd, former cast member), May 9, 1981 (with host Steve Martin, an ''SNL'' favorite), May 16, 1981 (with host Brooke Shields), and May 23, 1981 (with another frequent ''SNL'' host, Buck Henry). Aykroyd wouldn't get a chance to host until the 28th season finale in 2003, Martin didn't come back until 1986, Shields has yet to host, and Henry never hosted again.

Cast

(Episodes 1–12)

Repertory players
* Denny Dillon
* Gilbert Gottfried
* Gail Matthius
*Eddie Murphy (first episode: December 13, 1980/upgraded to repertory status on February 7, 1981)
* Joe Piscopo
* Ann Risley
* Charles Rocket

Featured players
* Yvonne Hudson (first episode: December 20, 1980)
* Matthew Laurance (first episode: December 13, 1980)
* Patrick Weathers (first episode: December 13, 1980)

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Eddie Murphy is credited for five episodes as a featured player before becoming part of the main cast. Meanwhile, Yvonne Hudson was credited for seven episodes (though she didn't appear in one such episode), and Matthew Laurance and Patrick Weathers were credited for eight episodes (though Weathers did not appear in his seventh episode).

(Episode 13)

Repertory players
* Denny Dillon
* Robin Duke
* Tim Kazurinsky
* Gail Matthius
*Eddie Murphy
* Joe Piscopo
* Tony Rosato

Featured players
* Laurie Metcalf
* Emily Prager (credited, but did not appear)

Writers

Brian Doyle-Murray returned as the only writer from the previous season. Barry Blaustein, David Sheffield, Pamela Norris and Terry Sweeney were also hired; the latter would become a cast member in 1985. Musician and Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour writer Mason Williams was the season's first head writer but left after clashing with Doumanian. Jeremy Stevens and Tom Moore joined as head writers for the remaining Doumanian shows. Michael O'Donoghue was rehired after Doumanian's firing, as a head writer, alongside Bob Tischler (who was also in a head writer role).

This season's writers included Larry Arnstein, Barry W. Blaustein, Billy Brown, Ferris Butler, John DeBellis, Jean Doumanian, Nancy Dowd, Brian Doyle-Murray, Leslie Fuller, Mel Green, David Hurwitz, Judy Jacklin, Sean Kelly, Mitchell Kriegman, Patricia Marx, Douglas McGrath, Tom Moore, Matt Neuman, Pamela Norris, Michael O'Donoghue, Mark Reisman, David Sheffield, Jeremy Stevens, Terry Sweeney, Bob Tischler, Mason Williams and Dirk Wittenborn.

For the next season, in addition to O'Donoghue and Tischler being maintained as the head writers; the only other writers to return were Bluastein, Norris, Sheffield, and Doyle-Murray (Doyle-Murray was not credited for the season finale).

Episodes

Critical reception

Responses to Doumanian's ''SNL'' were negative. The ''Associated Press'', mocking the Carters-in-the-Oval-Office sketch, wrote, "The new ''Saturday Night Live'' is essentially crude, sophomoric and most of all self-consciously 'cool.' It is occasionally funny... Under producer Jean Doumanian, ''Saturday Night Live'' will define 'risk-taking' as a little naughtier, perhaps a little raunchier; it won't wander too far off the beaten path... They're all clones. This is television. If they can be funny once in a while, that's all we can ask." Much of the criticism was directed at the style of humor, which journalists said appeared to go for shock value and came across as tasteless.

''The New York Times'' said the season "looked almost exactly as it did in previous years, but actually only the shell remained". The review went on to state that the "missing ingredient was the very quality that made the old show so special: an innovative vision", and that the new show was "nothing so much as an unfunny parody of its predecessor".

Hill and Weingrad summarized other reviews:

''The Washington Star'' said the show "strained and groaned" while the humor was "almost completely lost, despite desperate attempts to wring it out of raunch." ''Newsday''s Marvin Kitman, as expected, ravaged the show gleefully, calling it "offensive and raunchy," and worse, not funny. "This new edition is terrible," he wrote. "Call it 'Saturday Night Dead on Arrival'."

Tom Shales' headline on his review read "FROM YUK TO YECCCH". The first sentence was: "Vile from New York—It's ''Saturday Night''." The show, Shales said, was a "snide and sordid embarrassment". It imitated the "ribaldry and willingness to prod sacred cows" of the Lorne Michaels years without having the least "compensating satirical edge". It was, he wrote, "just haplessly pointless tastelessness". Shales concluded that despite one or two imaginative moments from the show's filmmakers, "from the six new performers and 13 new writers hired for the show, viewers got virtually no good news."... Jean made it clear that she thought the writing was primarily at fault. "It's just ''got'' to be funnier," she said. Then she put a tape of the show on her videocassette machine to begin a sketch-by-sketch critique. According to writer Billy Brown, as she did she said, "Watch this. And I hope you hate it, because you wrote it."

In his book ''What Were They Thinking? The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History'', author David Hofstede included this season as one of 25 runners-up to the list.

References

Works cited

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{{Saturday Night Live

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1980 American television seasons
1981 American television seasons
Saturday Night Live in the 1980s